This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 11-014306, filed Jan. 22, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable electronic apparatus including a scanner and a data transmitter, and more particularly, to a palm-size PC (or an organizer) including an image scanner and a data transmitter.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Portable electronic apparatuses has been achieved through the result of technological advances in areas such as display devices, batteries, and memory devices. For example, electronic devices now have lower electrical consumption, smaller batteries, and smaller memories with larger capacities.
As a result, an organizer is possible having a database to store massive amounts of data and a processor to efficiently search the data. If the organizer further has an optical communication system, a user can transfer the data to be used on a more functional apparatus such as a personal computer (hereinafter referred as PC) by transferring the data via the optical communication system. In addition, the user can obtain other data through the optical communication system. For example, data can be read by an image scanner that is connected to the PC, transferred to the organizer through the optical communication, and stored in the organizer. If necessary, the data can be converted into character data before being stored.
Generally, such palm-size PCs or organizers can be used at remote locations due to their small size and transportability. In remote operation, the device is usually manually operated. For instance, when inputting information from a business card, the user must manually enter a company name and a telephone number. However, manual operations are complicated.
The use of an optional image scanner and optical communication avoids such complications. However, since the optional image scanner is separate from the hand-held apparatus, the use of two separate apparatuses is also complicated. Even if the two apparatuses are simply combined, the resulting apparatus is still inefficient.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a portable electronic apparatus that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a portable apparatus efficiently integrating an image scanner and a data transmitter.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be appeared from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof with the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present inventions, as embodied and broadly described, a portable electronic apparatus includes a light source, a memory circuitry that stores data an optical scanning circuitry that uses the light source to optically scan an image and to generate data corresponding to the image to be stored in the memory circuitry, an optical transmitter using the light source to optically transmit data in the memory circuitry; a selector connected with the light source to provide one of a first input signal modulated according to the data stored in the memory circuitry and a second input signal that is constant; and a controller that controls the selector to supply the second signal to the light source when a scanning mode is selected and to supply the first signal to the light source when a data transmission mode is selected.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.